00:00 The internet may have simplified a tenant's task
00:03 of identifying houses or rooms to rent.
00:06 But for some Malaysians, that is not the end of their worries.
00:09 The racial discrimination they are liable to face from landlords
00:13 can sometimes be insurmountable.
00:15 Take married couple, Anton Tanabalasingam and Sherlene Yap,
00:19 who are both working professionals with steady incomes.
00:22 They are more than capable of meeting their monthly rental commitments.
00:26 However, for some landlords, their ethnicity matters more
00:29 than their ability to pay rent.
00:32 I guess the problems were
00:36 because quite a number of people didn't want to rent out to Indians for some reason.
00:40 Anton says there is an unfair stereotype about Indians being bad paymasters.
00:46 Activist Ryan Chua says existing legislation in Malaysia
00:49 is of no help to renters facing discrimination.
00:53 But he hopes that the proposed Residential Tenancy Act,
00:55 expected to be tabled in Parliament next year,
00:58 will help resolve the problem.
01:00 So when you have the Residential Tenancy Act,
01:03 elements of non-discrimination are also in there.
01:06 And it allows people to also have conversations
01:12 or to resolve such issues.
01:15 Chua says the law would prohibit the practice of racial discrimination
01:19 by landlords and give prospective tenants an equal shot
01:23 at securing a place to stay.
01:25 His NGO, Komas, is also pushing for a National Harmony Reconciliation Commission
01:30 to be set up to provide an avenue for mediation of issues
01:33 which relate to race and religion.
01:35 For Anton and Yap, however,
01:37 the court letter of the law alone will not resolve the problem.
01:41 I think if people just had a little bit more of humanity
01:45 in terms of interacting and dealing with others,
01:47 it would immediately solve the problem.
01:49 Samuel Chua, FMT News.
01:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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